Shari Randall's"Pets" will be included in Chesapeake Crimes: Fur, Feathers, and Felonies anthology, which will be published in 2018. In the same anthology "Rasputin," KM Rockwood'sshort story, will also bepublished. Her short story "Goldie" will be published in the Busted anthology, which will be released by Level Best Books on April 25th.

In addition, our prolific KM has had the following shorts published as well: "Making Tracks" in Passport to Murder, Bouchercon anthology, October 2017 and "Turkey Underfoot," appears in the anthology The Killer Wore Cranberry: a Fifth Course of Chaos.

Wednesday, May 17, 2017

An Interview With Cindy Brown

by Grace Topping

Cindy Brown describes
herself as a mystery writer, theater geek, and purveyor of general silliness—all
evident in her hysterically funny Ivy Meadows series, madcap mysteries set in
off, off, OFF Broadway. Each book in her series features a theater production,
a body, and lots of humor. Cindy knows where to stash a body or two. Don’t
believe me? Check out her web site for photos of the best places to hide a
body. If you recognize some mystery writers in the photos, it’s purely
coincidental.

Cindy’s latest book, Ivy Get Your Gun, is being released TODAY, May 17. To celebrate,
she is holding a launch party 7-9 pm at O’Connors Vault, 7850 S.W. Capitol
Highway, Portland, Oregon. Cindy and some local actors will be doing readings
of chapters from her book. If you find yourself in the Portland area, stop by
and join in the celebration. But you’ll have to check your gun at the door.

It’s a pleasure
to welcome Cindy Brown to Writers Who Kill.

With your background in theater as a musician,
actor, director, producer, and playwright, what made you turn your efforts to
writing mysteries?

Cindy Brown

It was Ivy. One
day she appeared in my head as a full-blown character. I knew she was an
actress, I knew she was a part-time PI, and I knew she didn’t fit into a play
or a screenplay. I also knew there would be a murder during a production of Macbeth (it’s cursed, you know), so I
decided to learn how to write a mystery. I’d written a lot of plays and
screenplays, so I had a good idea of dialogue and dramatic structure, but
setting and description took me awhile.

One reviewer wrote that Macdeath satisfies on numerous levels.
You’ve got Ivy the PI, Ivy the actress, the mystery, and lots of information
about the production/writer she is working on. How much of a challenge is it bringing
all of these things together?

It’s tough. It’s
not so much the various facets of Ivy, but the theatre angle. I have to mention
all the familiar characters from each play, work around copyright issues, and
make sure the timelines work. Timelines are a challenge in any mystery, but
theatre and actors’ schedules are pretty specific, e.g. theaters are always
open on Saturday nights but dark on Mondays. And there are timelines within the
shows—if the character is on stage all during Act Three, he can’t commit a
murder then. It’s challenging to write, but really fun, too.

Ivy comes across as a take-charge
girl—nothing wimpy about her. In Macdeath,
she literally rolls with the punches, and in Ivy Get Your Gun she faces down gunslingers. What is it about Ivy
that gives her so much moxie?

I love that word!
I think Ivy’s moxie (I got to say it, too!) comes from the fact that her
parents emotionally abandoned her after her brother’s accident, when she was
just 11. She basically had to fend for herself, and it made her vulnerable and
independent at the same time.

Humor is one of the most enjoyable
features of your books. “When I learned about the cruise, the money, and the
fact that I’d play Nancy in the onboard musical of Oliver Twist, I felt like I’d died and gone to Broadway.” As most
writers will attest, humor is hard to do. What is your secret for injecting
humor?

I present a
workshop called, “How to Be Funny on the Page (even if you’re not in real
life),” so I think about writing humor a lot. For me, a couple of things are
vital. One is not to try to be funny, but just write about things that I find funny. It takes the pressure off
and I really get to enjoy the writing. The other incredibly important bit is
rewriting. Sure, some stuff comes out funny the first time, but most of the
time I tweak and tweak and tweak to make sure the timing is right.

It’s obvious in your books that you’ve
done your homework on the production/writer that you are featuring. Even your
analogies relate to them. “…the S.S. David Copperfield rose out of the fog like
Miss Havisham’s wedding cake….” How much research do you do before you start
writing?

Tons! I love
research, especially when it involves reading novels or plays. I also read a
lot of nonfiction about my subjects. For example, I read several biographies of
Annie Oakley before beginning Ivy Get
Your Gun. I also try to see as many dramatic productions as I
can (theatre, film, TV). There’s a good story about that in Ivy Get Your Gun —it’s in the Reader’s
Discussion Guide at the end of the book (and you allude to it in the next
question).

In Ivy
Get Your Gun, Ivy objects to how Annie Oakley is portrayed and attempts to
correct fallacies about her life perpetuated in the movies, etc. Who is the
real Annie Oakley? What did you like most about her?

She was an
amazingly strong woman who survived a nightmare childhood to single-handedly
pull her family out of poverty while she was still a teen. Even more
impressive, she maintained her integrity after becoming the most famous woman
in the world. One story I love: Prince Edward once extended a hand to
congratulate Annie on her marksmanship. Instead of taking it, she went first to
his wife Princess Alexandra and shook her hand, maintaining that, “In America,
ladies came first.” It was a huge breach of custom, and Annie did it
deliberately, since Edward was well known as a womanizing lout, and Alexandra a
gentle spirit devoted to the poor. Gotta love her.

In Oliver
Twisted, Ivy’s fear of water complicates her job of going undercover on a
cruise ship. What lies behind her fear of water?

When Ivy was 11,
her brother fell through the ice while skating on a frozen pond. She was
supposed to be watching him. Instead she watched as the black icy water closed
over him. It’s the defining point of her life.

You’ve done library appearances with
other writers. What part of promotion do you enjoy the most, or the least?

While I enjoy
hunkering down in my writing cave, I also sometimes feel isolated, so I love
in-person events. I also love connecting with readers, whether in-person or by
email. It tickles me no end to know that we have both experienced Ivy’s world. I
have to admit that I don’t always enjoy social media. I like the connections, but
it also means more time in front of a computer screen, and can distract me from
my writing (look, a puppy video!).

Any hope that your books will come out in
an audio version?

My publisher is
working on it.I really hope it happens,
because I would love to read the books myself—I’ve done a fair amount of voice
work.

I read that you placed third in the
international Words With Jam First Page Competition (judged by Sue Grafton). That’s
impressive. What advice can you give to aspiring writers about first pages?

Someone once
told me, “Open with a question.” It doesn’t have to be a literal question, but
something that draws the reader in. The first page that won accolades in the Words
With Jam contest opens with this (from The
Sound of Murder):

I should never do anything
pre-coffee.

“It was only a teeny fire,” I told
my Uncle Bob over the phone.

See the inherent
question(s)? Here’s another great first line that works that way, from Ann
Patchett’s Commonwealth: “The
christening party took a turn when Albert Cousins arrived with gin.” Love that
line.So far Ivy has worked in productions
related to Macbeth, Oliver Twist, The Sound of Music, and Annie Get Your Gun. How do you select
the works that you feature in your books? Have you picked your next production?
If so, can you tell us about it?

My choices are
fairly narrow: I need to work with plays that are familiar to readers, and
stories that don’t have too many copyright restrictions. The next book, The Phantom of Oz, takes place during an
outer space-themed production of The
Wizard of Oz (called The Wizard: A
Space OZpera), and is set in a haunted theater. It’s been a blast trying to
write slightly silly spooky stuff.

You wrote that you would most like to be
remembered for helping to launch ARTability in Arizona. Please tell us about
that.

I was the first
statewide director for ARTability, an organization dedicated to providing
access to the arts for people with disabilities. It began as a coalition of
Arizona arts organizations and disability organizations. Having buy-in from
both the arts and disability communities made us very effective: We were able
to do a lot to make arts events more accessible (sign language interpretation,
audio description, wheelchair-friendly exhibits, etc.). That kind of
collaboration hadn’t been done before; in fact, we won an innovation award from
the NEA (The National Endowment for the Arts) and NASAA (The National
Association of State Arts Agencies). I am a firm believer that the arts enrich
and even save lives and am very proud to have had a small part in making art
accessible to all.

Is your work
area neat or messy?

See photo :)

Readers, what do you think?

Thank you,
Cindy.

Thank you for
having me!

Below is a description of Cindy's latest book--available in bookstores and online today.

Ivy Get Your Gun

There’s a new sheriff in
town—and she can sing! When Gold Bug Gulch’s actor-gunslinger Mongo winds up
shot for real, actress and part-time PI Ivy Meadows goes undercover as the
ingénue in the tourist town’s melodrama. Unfortunately, she’s distracted by a
pack of marauding Chihuahuas, a problematic love life, auditions for Annie Get
Your Gun, and a personal mission: to show people the real Annie Oakley. What’s
more, the no-good, yellow-bellied varmint who killed Mongo isn’t finished with
the Gulch—or with Ivy. Will our heroine prove she can get a man with a
gun—before the killer gets her?

Thanks, all (especially Grace-what thoughtful questions you ask)! I'm sure there's a way to reply to your individual comments, but I can't figure it out (only one cup of coffee this morning), so will just say how happy I am to be part of this wonderful community. I had a blast (gun pun intended:) writing this book - hope you enjoy it!

Messy, but it must suit you. I've had you on my TBR pile for a while now. BTW: I arrange classes for the SinC Guppies, Cindy--maybe we could talk about your teaching! I'll get your email address from Grace. Good luck with the book (series).